The latest hourly and annual salary numbers for dentists and dental assistants

Looking at the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics – and what it means to you.

Call them the Robins to the dentists’ Batmen. Dental assistants work side-by-side with dentists and a lot of their data mirrors the dentists – it almost has to. There were 327,290 dental assistants in 2016, up from 318,800 in 2014. Like dentists, that number is expected to grow 18 percent by 2024.

In 2016, dental assistants made an average $36,940 per year (or $17.76 per hour), and most worked in dentists’ offices. But the best pay was for those 3,930 working for the Federal Executive Branch. They earned an average of $40,570 per year.

Location, not surprisingly, mirrored the top three locations for dentists: California (48,350), Texas (28,210) and New York (20,050). But the top paying states differed from this list, completely. The top earning dental assistants were in Minnesota ($47,210), New Hampshire ($46,050) and Alaska ($45,390).

In the years to come, the dental profession offers a lot of opportunities – between patient demand and on-the-job advancements, there will be plenty of work and enough to keep the doctor interested and engaged.